Party of Five

I haven't been watching much of anything lately but after finally finishing The Office, over the weekend I got around to watching the first episode-and-a-half of Party of Five. I was always intrigued by this show when it was on, probably because of my penchant for teen melodrama and, well, who's not curious about the logistics of five orphans raising themselves? I found out that it's really boring. How are we going to find/pay for a nanny, though we have a seemingly endless fount of money from our dead parents? Why is Julia such a dork? How can their parents' restaurant still possibly be open? I found Bailey to be like nails on a chalkboard, and my fiance lost interest as soon as he realized that Jennifer Love Hewitt isn't (I think) in the first season at all. I turned it off halfway through the second episode and still haven't decided if I'm going to give it another shot.

On deck? Dexter, Havoc, and In the Land of Women (which I added to my queue only in a fit of mourning about the end of The OC).

The Office

One thing I've been watching for awhile but not writing about is The Office (American version). My friend got me into it when we used to watch The OC every Thursday, probably about halfway through season 3, so I've been watching the first few seasons ofn Netflix. I wanted to catch up before season 4 started but obviously that didn't happen--we're now about to the point where I started watching. One interesting thing that I didn't catch the first time around is how they made Roy into such a dick while he and Pam were engaged. I think when I started they had just broken up, and Jim was starting to date Karen. I wish they did more with the tertiary characters. Stanley is my ultimate favorite, followed closely by Kelly and Phyllis.
The first few season 4 episodes were not so great (I don't think they can sustain an hour), but last night's was pretty good ("Climb on top of her and think of Stanley!")

I wish...

that they would put Freddy's Nightmares out on DVD. I've never seen it and was totally not cognizant of its existence at the time it was one, but I bet it's awesome. Plus, I read that one episode goes into Freddy's backstory which, despite rumors to the contrary, I am pretty sure they are never going to explore in a prequel. No one wants to see a movie about a child molester/murderer, especially not a wisecracking one. I know there are always debates about whether Freddy was actually a molester or JUST a murderer but 1. what a dumb thing to argue about, even on the Internet and 2. I think it's pretty clear that he was both. Anyway, I know I said a few posts ago that anthologies never work, but I think they work much better on TV than in a movie.

Carrie (2002)

There's only one thing you need to know about the 2002 TV-movie remake of Carrie: IT ENDS WITH CARRIE ALIVE. On her way to Florida, driven by Sue Snell. To start a new life. Had the remake been more successful, it would have been a new life HELPING OTHER PEOPLE WITH TELEKINESIS, documented on a new TV show. I couldn't make this shit up.

Up until that point, it was actually pretty decent. Though the format of showing the events of and leading up to the prom interspersed with police interviews from the days after is actually much closer to the novel, it causes the movie to lose momentum. It also recreates a scene that was in the book, but not in the movie, of a four-year-old Carrie causing rocks to fall from the sky after she sees a teenage neighbor sunbathing topless. Though it adds some backstory, it also adds a lot of bad CGI. The new Sue Snell has an arrogant quality that is totally absent from her portrayal in either the book or the movie. Angela Bettis, also seen as a total misfit in May, was pretty decent as the title character, though she lacked the ethereal quality of Sissy Spacek when she finally gets dressed to go to the prom. Emilie de Ravin is okay as mean-girl Chris Hargensen, although I have no idea why they rewrote the story to make her have second thoughts at the end.

I guess since its a TV movie, this "reimagining of Carrie for a new generation" was interesting enough, but lacked the sheer nastiness and horror of the 70s original. The scenes with the crazy mother (played here by Patricia Clarkson) were way toned-down, though the scene where Chris and her cronies killed the pig is much longer, and much more harrowing. Also, it seems like there is a lot more useless exposition, as if the movie was geared toward teen girls who wouldn't otherwise understand the themes. The prom scene is still fairly shocking, though the moments leading up to the fated drop of the bucket lack the dreamlike feel of the original. Also missing is perhaps the most iconic moment from the original, the hand out of the grave at the end. Though I guess it wouldn't scare anyone now.

But like I said, all you really need to know is that this movie was originally conceived as a pilot for a TV series in which Carrie moves to Florida and helps others with telekinesis. Jesus Christ.